


Birthday Wishes

by 26stars



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Gen, birthday fic, hey look! i managed to write fluff without angst!, s1-2 bus family feels, season 1-2 interim
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-24 02:36:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9695915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/26stars/pseuds/26stars
Summary: May gets a surprise from Skye on her birthday...possibly more than one.Birthday fic for b00k-freak!





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Book_freak](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Book_freak/gifts).



> Flashfic oneshot for Book_freak, who has been an amazing friend, a great writing buddy, a patient sounding board, and a wonderful gift to our fandom (and my rarepair trashcan) since I was barely discovering this fandom. Thank you so much for all the encouragement, feels, and laughs--I hope you have a great birthday! <3

She doesn’t need an alarm to wake her up at 5 anymore; when she’s well-rested, her body does it without prompting. She opens her eyes to the same brick walls that have been hemming her in for the last few months, ever since their team moved into the Playground back in the spring. It’s been a long march from those early days, recalibrating and rebuilding SHIELD and getting a solid foundation under them to take on Hydra again. A long march with no end in sight—

So she doesn’t expect a day off just because it’s her birthday.

She’s been taking it easy on Skye, meaning the girl doesn’t have to meet her in the training room until 5:45 (they’ve been working their way backward from 7 since they started training together a few months ago). Out of habit, May fishes her phone off its charger beneath her pillow and unlocks it, planning to check her messages and the latest news feeds before she puts her feet to the floor.

Surprisingly, there is a message waiting from Skye, which was sent only a couple of hours ago.

Expecting it to be a half-hearted plea for a later start to their morning workout, May opens the message with a preemptive sigh. Instead of a text, though, a video thumbnail appears on her screen, quickly downloading and playing automatically, expanding to fit her phone screen.

Skye’s face appears, her hair pulled back in a ponytail and her dark eyes bright with mischief. She’s grinning widely but still seems a little bit nervous.

_What…_

“Happy birthday, May!” the face on her screen announces in a not-at-all-quiet voice, and May quickly turns the volume down even as she sits up in bed, confused.

_I didn’t tell her…_

_Oh come on Melinda, she’s read your file…_

“Uhm, I’ll start by saying that this was my idea,” the girl goes on, glancing nervously away before actively training her eyes back up at the camera. “So if you want to be mad at someone about this, then…basically, don’t blame Coulson. I ran this idea by him, and he warned me that you don’t really do birthdays...”

May huffs out a disbelieving laugh. _Of course you ignored him…_

“So, uh, I know talking’s not your thing, and you’d probably hate it if we gave you cards or had a cake or made a big deal about your birthday, so this was my roundabout way of making sure we all got to wish you a happy birthday and tell you…yeah anyway. Coulson’s first!”

The camera cuts to Coulson surfacing from behind piles of papers spread across his desk and smiling at the camera. The sky outside his office windows is blue and sunny, so May knows that this was recorded days ago—it’s been raining since Wednesday.

“Happy birthday, May,” he says with a smile, seeming far more at ease than Skye had been. “I won’t say it in front of Skye, but I know the number, and I know we always joked we wouldn’t live to see this birthday, so congratulations, we did it, and thank you, because you know I wouldn’t have lived this long without you around.”

 _He looks so tired…_ is all May can think as her friend glances at something off camera, clearly being prompted to say something else. “Oh, and Skye wanted me to make sure you know that this wasn’t my idea,” Coulson adds, eyes crinkling knowingly. “Happy birthday—and go easy on her in training today.”

He smiles again, a visage of her oldest friend burning through the gray cloud that’s been slowly obscuring him these past few weeks, and May realizes that she’s smiling only when the camera cuts to another scene and she feels it fade. This shot is in the lab, a curly-haired engineer hunched over a bench, hard at work with a set of small tools and smaller screws. 

“Okay, Fitz, go ahead!” Skye prompts from behind the camera, and he looks up at the girl and not the camera, confused. “Can you wish Agent May a happy birthday?” she prompts, sounding, unfortunately, like a mom coaxing a toddler to demonstrate a skill for an audience, and Fitz glances once at the camera before bowing his head again.

“Happy birthday, May,” he mutters, so quiet that the camera barely picks it up, and Skye shifts a little bit closer. “I’m, ah, glad you’re not Hydra…and I’m glad you’re still here.”

It’s a subtle dig, but May only smiles, happy to see Fitz coherent enough to remind her that she’d once shot at him over this exact misunderstanding. She knows his last sentiment is more motivated by Simmons’ absence than his gratitude towards her, since his best friend has been gone for a couple of weeks already.

May is surprised, however, that the scientist’s face is the next one to fill the screen.

“Happy birthday, Agent May!” Simmons sings with a smile that seems far more hesitant than it used to be, another casualty of the world that crashed down around them this year. Simmons looks like she’s propped up against the arm of a sofa in the living room of her townhouse, the one May herself had cased and secured in preparation for the biochemist to move in there and establish her Hydra cover. “I promise, Skye has set up a very secure channel for me to send this to her. I uh, miss you all so much already, and I wish I could be there, but it’s good knowing that everyone is safe and hopefully right where I left them. I hope it’s a lovely day for you, but I’m also secretly hoping that Skye has some other shenanigans in the works to make your birthday special.” The light comes back to her eyes for a moment again as she smiles. “Happy birthday, May. You’re very loved.”

The camera cuts back to Skye, clearly seated on her bed in her bunk, her phone held a little wobbly in one hand out in front of her.

“So, yeah, I just wanted to make sure you heard it, even if you don’t let us say it.” Skye looks shy again, glancing down and biting her lip once. “We uh, we wouldn’t be here without you May. I know you don’t need me to tell you that, but you’ve been saving our lives since the day I met you, and that’s kind of a big deal. I uh, I know this last year has been…unbelievable. But I’m glad we all made it through—and I’m really glad you’re here.”

Skye looks up at the camera, as if channeling sincerity. “Thanks for volunteering to train me—I don’t know, maybe it was Coulson’s idea, but you asked me before I could ask you, and that really means a lot to me. You’re…you’re great, May. And I know you’ll never let me say that to your face, but I feel really lucky to know you at all, let alone be trained by you. I really…yeah. I’ll just stop there.” She glances away, as if resetting the air around her, before looking back at the camera and smiling. “I’m going to send this to your phone so that you can watch it when you’re alone. If you want to pretend like this didn’t happen and never mention it, that’s fine—I understand. And if you totally kick my ass in training tomorrow, I’ll know why. But…yeah. You deserve a good day, and I wanted to make sure you know how much you mean to us. Thanks…for everything. Happy birthday!” The girl smiles on the last words, but the nerves are still noticeable behind her eyes.

_Oh Skye…_

The video fades to black, and May drops her phone onto her chest, taking a deep breath. Her chest feels a little bit tight.

_How do you even respond to that?_

_She said you didn’t have to mention it,_ she reminds herself. _Ball’s in your court._

May lifts her phone again and looks at the time.

 _Decide before you get to the training room,_ she orders herself, pushing back the covers and lowering her feet to the floor to take on one more day.

* * *

 

They’re eight minutes into tai chi, and Skye’s heart is still thudding.

She’d been nervous as all get out to finally meet May for morning drill, having no doubt that she had watched her video by then, but her S.O. had said nothing as she led Skye out to the hangar to do their usual laps and sprint training drill before heading back into the training room for strength training. May’s drills had been no more strenuous than yesterday, which Skye took as a good sign that May wasn’t too mad at her, but she had still been unable to shake the feeling of anticipation that had kept her heart hammering along far above its usual resting rate.

She knows she should let it go—she told May she didn’t need to mention it, and that’s exactly what May’s not doing, so what’s the problem?

Still, it would be nice if she would just say…something.

Their hand-to-hand combat drills always come after tai chi (“Once you’ve let the morning’s workout settle in and you’ve re-learned the ground under your feet and the body your feet are attached to,” May has said), so Skye moves without prompting to the punching bag once they’ve finished their usual routine. May holds the bag and watches her drill through punches and kicks, occasionally correcting her form or technique but, for the most part, staying quiet.

 _She doesn’t really do talking,_ Skye reminds herself, trying to focus on the bag, her form, anything but May or the illogical hurt seeping through her chest. _You gave her an easy out so she wouldn’t have to say anything._  

It’s not until they’re moving to the mats to work through her full-body moves though that May surprises her.

“Let’s call it a morning,” her S.O. says, and Skye pauses in pulling on her kneepads. May is picking up her gym towel and water, already headed for the locker room.

“Did you just say what I think you said?” Skye asks, unmoving from her place on the padded floor. “Are you really calling it a morning?”

“I’m 45 today,” May calls over her shoulder. “I’m allowed.” 

Heart leaping in her chest, Skye grins and jumps to her feet, snatching up her own towel and water and hurrying after May.

May has her locker open and is pulling off her sparring gloves and kneepads, tossing them in the bottom section with her tennis shoes as Skye comes in.

“Does this mean I can say happy birthday to your face, then, since you brought it up?” Skye asks, daring to test her luck.

She expects her S.O. to respond with a scowl or a smirk, but May surprises her by instead just smiling softly.

“You don’t need to,” she says, holding Skye’s gaze, who cannot look away, completely disarmed by the smile. “And thank you, Skye. I really…it meant a lot to me.”

Skye has no doubt she must have the mooniest smile on her face right now, but she can’t summon the self-consciousness to care. “I’m glad you liked it,” she says, watching as May pulls out a change of clothes and picks up a bath-sized towel off the shelf.

“Should I be expecting more shenanigans today?” May asks as she moves off towards the showers, not really waiting for the answers.

Skye grins to herself. _Well, now that you mention it…_

* * *

 

The confetti cannon goes off exactly like it was advertised to do, pelting the air above May’s head with a few hundred pieces of multicolored tissue paper, which float down onto her damp skin with cinematic leisure. May freezes mid-step, barely out of the shower and wrapped only in a towel, looking more confused than anything else as Skye barely manages to stay upright from laughing so hard.

“Happy birthday, May!” she wheezes out, attempting to hold her phone steady and keep May in the frame.

May’s eyes fall on her, her expression changing in an instant. Skye recognizes that look and instantly jumps to her feet and starts backing away.

“Skye, are you recording?” May demands, looking like a sentient piñata with the multicolored skin she’s just acquired.

“Catch me if you can!” Skye dares, turning and sprinting back through the locker room towards the safety of the training room and the rest of her team in the base.

 _Thanks for the idea, Coulson,_ she thinks as she runs, and she only grins wider when she hears May _laughing_ right behind her.


End file.
